When athletic director Rob Spear put the final touches on Idaho’s 2012 fall schedule, he was well aware that the Vandals would visit Louisiana twice to meet the state’s top two contenders.
Tony Marcolina | Argonaut
Junior Michael LaGrone pulls in a one-handed catch Wednesday during practice in the Kibbie Dome. LaGrone has 10 receptions for 89 yards and one touchdown.
LSU, the perennial powerhouse of the two, has had a permanent seat reserved in the AP Top 25 rankings. La. Tech, on the other hand, struggled to win three games in the WAC three years ago — the same year Idaho triumphed in the Humanitarian Bowl.
Since then, the Bulldogs have employed a Robert Frost state of mind, taking “the road less travelled” and rising to national prominence under third-year head coach Sonny Dykes.
Dykes and the Bulldogs, ranked No. 23 in the nation a week ago, were a two-point conversion away from upsetting now No. 18 Texas A&M and becoming a potential BCS buster.
Idaho coach Robb Akey is conscious of the stress La. Tech placed on an Aggie team that downed the Vandals 37-7 last season in College Station.
“I know Texas A&M’s a good football team…” Akey said. “There were 250 plays, I think, in this ball game. It was unreal and obviously you have a great deal of respect for Louisiana Tech.” Now, the Vandals prepare for what will undoubtedly be the cream of the crop in terms of offenses they have seen or will see this season. Yes, including the SEC Tigers.
On the flip side, the Bulldog defense is one of the worst in the nation, ranked No. 117 among FBS teams. Thankfully, Manning Award hopeful Colby Cameron and the La. Tech offense compensates for that.
The unrelenting offense, which leads the nation in points-per-game, averaging almost 54 — and the Bulldogs have scored less than 50 points only once this season.
Cameron, who was named to the Manning Award watch list Wednesday, has the nation’s 13th-best passer rating. His touchdown-to-interception ratio stands at 18:0 and he’s completed at least 65 percent of his passes in all six of La. Tech’s games.
Senior safety Aaron Grymes and the defense spent a week preparing for the spread option offense Texas State ran last week, but have transitioned back to the pro style scheme they’ve been accustomed to.
However, none of those offenses have been under the command of a quarterback as efficient as Cameron.
“He’s a really good quarterback, he makes his reads, he finds the guy he wants to throw the ball to…I think he has a 70 percent completion percentage. He’s no layover,” Grymes sais.
If Idaho’s defensive front can pressure Cameron, preventing one of the nation’s best playmaking receivers in Quinton Patten from going off will be more viable.
Patten is the nation’s fifth ranked receiver in terms of receiving yards (765) and his nine touchdown receptions rank second, behind only West Virginia’s Stedman Bailey.
“He brings a lot of skill to the game, we know he’s a good receiver, we know he’s their go-to guy,” Grymes said. “Every great player has a weakness, we have to find it and then exploit it.”
To Idaho’s dismay, the Bulldog offense isn’t one-dimensional. In fact, while Cameron’s 18 touchdown passes have accounted for 106 points this season, another 132 have come on the ground.
Leading rusher Kenneth Dixon heads a running back corps that has compiled more than 1,300 rushing yards this season.
Although the Bulldogs may run out with the nation’s most high-powered offense, their defense, ranked No. 117 in the nation, has allowed at least 30 points on six occasions.
La. Tech has allowed one more passing touchdown than it’s recorded, something Idaho receiver Mike Scott and the Vandal offense hope they can take advantage of.
“We definitely like the idea of them giving up 59 points last week. That kind of just let us know that there’s holes in the defense that we can attack,” Scott said.
Dykes would also claim that Idaho has outworked the Bulldogs physically in recent years, even during the Bulldogs’ 24-11 defeat of Idaho last season in the Kibbie Dome.
“They are a team that, physically they just whipped us last year. I mean we won the game. We were very fortunate to win it,” Dykes said during his weekly press conference. “Their defense just manhandled our offense really. They are big up front, big on the back end. They are always physical. That is kind of their deal. They are going to hit you.”
Kickoff in Ruston is set for 4 p.m. PT as Idaho seeks to move one game above .500 and the Bulldogs attempt to make the case that they are in fact BCS-worthy.
Theo Lawson can be reached at [email protected].